A is for Bee: An Alphabet Book in Translation by Ellen Heck

Click to hear about the spark of inspiration Ellen Heck had when creating her book.

Readers 3 to 9 years

What letter does the word bee start with?
If you said “B” you’re right – in English!
But in many, many languages, it actually starts with A.
Bee is Anu in Igbo.
Ari in Azerbaijani.
Aamoo in Ojibwe.
And Abelha in Portuguese.

Come and explore the gorgeous variations in the ways we talk about familiar things, unified and illuminated through Ellen Heck’s eye-catching, graphic scratchboard details and hidden letterforms.

About the Author:
Ellen Heck is a printmaker. For the past decade, through several print projects, she has explored questions about identity—its creation, variability, persistence and change. She studied philosophy at Brown University and art at SAIC. Inspired by reading Lithuanian alphabet books to her son, A Is for Bee is her debut picture book.

Hardcover book

Levin Querido Publisher, 2022